The Fledging of Az Gabrielson: A YA page turner

The Fledging of Az Gabrielson by Jay Amory

In the wake of a global apocalypse, humans take to the skies, building enormous cities above the encroaching cloud cover, connected to the earth by slender columns. The columns enclose supply elevators that bring essential resources up from the surface to the earth to the Airborn , who are so named because of these cities and because of their giant wings that allow them to fly like angels. All the Airborn have wings, except for the teenager Az Gabrielson, born without the wings that mark everyone else in his society. But when supplies stop coming up from the ground, his lack of wings make him a perfect spy. What very few people in the Airborn society know is that the elevators aren’t supplied by machines, but by Groundlings — humans left behind to maintain the elevators and keep the Airborn society thriving while they live in gloom and squalor on the surface. And what Az finds is that some of the Groundlings are fomenting rebellion and aren’t going to support the Airborn anymore.

The Fledging of Az Gabrielson, the first book in The Clouded World series, is a fast paced young adult adventure novel that sports a cast of highly engaging characters. Jay Amory (pen name of James Lovegrove) has written a sympathetic protagonist in Az, a young man who has faced plenty of challenges in his life as a wingless child in a society designed for people who can fly. The tensions between Az and the adults who have responsibility over him shape him into a young man who is willing to take an enormous risk  to prove his ability and worth in a culture that regards him as a freak or a throwback. When Az gets to the surface and is rescued by the Grubdollar family, his tentative overtures to young Cassie feel emotionally realistic. The interfamilial dynamics, as brothers take sides over the brewing Humanist rebellion, make for compelling fiction. Watching the family ties strain under the weight of betrayal, anger, and competing loyalties gives a layer of emotional realism to this story that many YA action fantasy novels lack.

There is one glaring problem with this story: How do the Airborn get their wings? If it’s evolutionary, there is no way humans could evolve wings within the time frame discussed in the story. If they had wings beforehand — there were two separate races to begin with — then the Groundlings would know who the Airborn were before and wouldn’t have bought into the Airborn-as-deity conceit that is essential to the conflict in the plot. And if the wings were a genetic modification to the race once they move up to the sky cities, why can’t they perform similar gene therapy on Az?

If you can get beyond the question of how the Airborn got their wings to begin with, you will discover that Jay Amory has written an highly enjoyable story with lots of action, endearing characters, and a thoughtful discussion of the politics of disability and exploitation, without getting bogged down in the message. Short chapters and plenty of tightly plotted action combine to make a page-turner of a novel that could be recommended to anyone who likes YA fantasy.